The Minister of Education Adamu Adamu believes Nigerians do not have “good reasons” to be disappointed with the Federal Government’s handling of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.
BASIC FACTS
- Nigeria Education Minister Adamu Adamu said Nigerians have no good reason to be disappointed with government handling of ASUU strike.
- ASUU has been on strike for over six months now and recently extended it indefinitely.
- The university lecturers have maintained that the federal government has shown a lackluster attitude towards agreements with ASUU.
WHAT WE KNOW
Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education have said Nigerians have no good reason to be disappointed with government handling of ASUU strike action, which have now lasted over 6 months and still running.
Adamu Adamu as the Minister of Education have a major burden of ensuring that the impasse between ASUU and the government is resolved. However, in an interview, the minister thinks the government has done well though the universities have been closed for almost a year.
He said this on Wednesday during an interview on Channel Television’s Politics Today, monitored by Clariform correspondent.
The lecturers have been on strike since February 14th but negotiations between them and the Federal Government have thus far not yielded results, a development that has triggered reactions from Nigerians.
When asked if Nigerians should be disappointed over the government’s inability to resolve the impasse, he said the government is not at fault.
The minister said the Federal Government has made an offer to ASUU as part of measures to end the strike.
NOTABLE QUOTE
The Minister in the interview said, “If Nigerians are disappointed, I think they don’t have very good reasons to be disappointed with the government on this,” he said. “Why should they be disappointed? Just tell me in your opinion, how is it the fault of the government and not that of the union?
“You can only blame the Federal Government if it refuses to do what it is supposed to do — make the offer to satisfy their demands. There is no demand that can be satisfied 100 percent by any government.”
“The government has already made an offer. As the minister, I know that the offer the government made is probably the best it can make,”
“You can’t do better than your best.”
COMMENTARY
Recall that Nigerian Universities have been closed since February 24th. Before the strike, ASUU had severally called on the federal government to fulfil the agreement it freely entered with the union.
The government last week made a U-turn on it’s no work no pay stance by setting up a committee to review the position.
The Minister of Education is deliberately been economical with the truth of how Nigerians feel on the ASUU strike. The truth is that the strike wouldn’t have happened if the federal government lived up to her agreement with ASUU.
Recently, the President Buhari administration is a surprise announcement warned government officials not to ever sign any non-implementable agreement on behalf of the government again.
This comment was made long after the continued denial by the federal government about the fact that it actually breached the agreement it had with ASUU.
However, in that warning about signing of what it refers to non-implementable agreement, the government in effect actually admitted the existence of the ASUU agreements.
These agreements are usually a product of painstaking negotiations and debates by federal government delegations and members of the university lecturers. One will therefore wonder how and at what point government adjudged the agreements it thoroughly negotiated and agreed on as non-implementable.
Clariform Newsdesk recalls that at the early days of the strike, the education minister showed little interest in meeting with the union to resolve the matter.
When he met with some students, his non diplomatic approach and poor crisis management was exposed, perhaps explaining why the strike happened.
Many Nigerians are convinced that the FG can end the strike within the shortest possible time, if the government show a little more commitment to the education of her citizens.
